Great Sounding MP3 player

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great Sound, great headphones, lots of features

Cons: Can't record from FM tuner, Video transfer is slow and tedious

The Bottom Line: 
You will not be disappointed with the SQ of this player. Buy it NOW!!!!

Author's Review
After selling my Zune 80, I was deciding on what my next DAP should be. Should I rebuy the Zune 80 or get the Creative Zen X-Fi? So I finally decided to buy the X-Fi. Why? Because I wanted to try out the X-Fi’s Sound Quality. I wanted to see if it does what it’s suppose to do. Which is to restore your MP3 collection.

The Creative X-Fi comes in 3 different storage capacities of 8gb, 16gb and 32gb. What are the differences between the 3 models besides the storage capacity? The 8gb version lacks the WIFI connectivity. Both the 16gb and 32gb contains the WIFI connectivity. (More about this later)

This review is for the Creative 32gb version of the Zen X-Fi.

Connection types on the Zen X-Fi

The Zen X-Fi sports a USB port, which thankfully is built into the player, so no need for a separate USB dongle pack, like the Zen Vision M. And of course it contains a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Unfortunately there is no line in like in some of Creative’s other MP3 players.

Setting up the Zen X-Fi

You can choose to either install Creative’s software called Creative Centrale or use Windows Media Player to transfer content to the X-Fi. Creative Centrale is preferred if you plan on transferring videos to the X-Fi. I have installed Creative Centrale, because I wanted videos on the X-Fi. The CD also contains software for Audible files, which you can use to listen to Audible audio files. This is essentially like those “books on tapes”.

Transferring content to the X-Fi via Windows Media Player

You can use Windows Media Player to transfer content to the X-Fi. However, only music can be transferred. With Windows Media Player, you simply drag and drop the files you want to the Zen X-Fi and it should automatically transfer over to the player. The X-Fi can also display album art if the file contains it. Every CD that I have ripped contains the album art, so everything transferred over to the X-Fi properly. So transferring music is real easy with either software.

The album art is somewhat small though, just a square of the art is shown. It’s not like on the Zune, where the art fills up the entire screen.

Transferring Video Content to the X-Fi

Transferring video to the X-Fi is a somewhat tedious process. You need to use Creative’s software called Creative Centrale. If your DVD or VCD is not protected, you can rip it straight to the Zen X-Fi. While it rips it also encodes to WMV, which takes a long time to do. Even after it encodes and transfers over to the X-Fi some of the files are not playable.

When the video files have been successfully transferred over to the X-Fi, the image is pretty good. Though I was somewhat disappointed in the colors of the X-Fi, I didn’t think the colors were as vibrant as that of the Zen Vision M. I think it is probably on par with the Zune’s colors. Other than that, the images are clear.

Navigating the menus on the Zen X-Fi

Navigating on the Zen X-Fi is done with buttons instead of the usual touch pad. The Zen X-fi sports 13 buttons in all. There are 4 outer buttons that surround a 9 digit keypad. It may seem like overkill with 13 buttons, but it really isn’t. It’s just as intuitive as the Vision M’s touch pad or the Zune’s “squircle”.

The outer 4 buttons are used to getting into the main menu, the sub menu, short cut button, which defaults to the X-Fi sound enhancement ON/OFF, (this button is user programmable) and the play/pause button.

The 9 digit keypad is used for selecting functions of those outer buttons. All you are really using are actually the middle buttons on that 9 digit keypad. So you basically have an UP DOWN LEFT and RIGHT. The Up and Down key is also the dedicated VOLUME control. The other buttons is used mainly for Instant Messaging. Those are where the letters are at, so navigation is very intuitive.

The Headphones

Creative includes a set of premium headphones, model “EP-830”. These are sound isolating headphones, which if purchased separately would cost about $50. These isolating headphones actually does a pretty good job in isolating outside noises. And they sound great. They also include different size gaskets that you can use. Sometimes I wonder why they would even bother to include stock earphones, since they usually are of inferior quality. But the EP830 is certainly not your usual stock buds. These are high quality earphones. I even think that they are much better than the Shure E2C’s.

X-Fi Sound enhancement

The X-Fi sound enhancement technology was the reason why I bought this player. What do I actually think of the X-Fi? Does it really work? I would say yes, there is actually a difference in the sound quality with the X-Fi ON. Everything sounds so much clearer. The highs sound high and the lows sound low. It sounds better than COWON’s D2. Even without the X-Fi technology turned ON, the Zen X-Fi still sounds great. Of course, this is purely subjective. Some may think that this is a load of crap…but to me the X-Fi technology sounds FANTASTIC!


Wifi Connectivity

So I was finally able to do the wifi on the x-fi. I am now streaming photos and music to the zen X-Fi. Once you input your network password, it stays on, and you won't need to enter it again. I can not tell you how hedious and horrible it is trying to type in my password with the keypad. It's the same as that on the PSP. It's simply horrible. I wish they would make like a tiny keyboard or something.

Do they really expect me to use this for instant messaging on a keypad like this?

After I got it successfully logged on, my WIFI router sees my Zen X-Fi. so yeah, it works and it's cool. However, I haven't tried streaming any videos yet because I don't have any video format that the Zen likes.

Using the Wifi certainly drains the battery of the X-Fi.

SD Card Slot

The X-Fi also sports an SD card slot for unlimited storage capacity. I have yet to test this, since I don’t have any SD card on me as of this writing. But supposedly the SD card is not integrated well with the X-Fi. It does not see the SD card in your music library. You have to go into the menu in order to access the SD card. I’m not sure if this would be a problem for me yet, because I do not have any SD card to try it.

SD card Update: 8-25-2008

I bought an 8gb SDHC memory card for the X-Fi, My PC would see the additional 8 gigs as a removable drive. You can simply use the familiar windows interface to transfer pics, videos, or music.

The downside of the SD Card? Is that it's not integrated into your music photo or video library. For music it might be a problem for some, because we want it to be seamless. But for photos or videos, it's not too big of a deal.

But even for music, I would just see as more music...this lack of integration doesn't really bug me at all

Now I got 40gigs on the X-Fi...NICE!!!!!!


FM Radio

The Zen X-Fi has an FM radio with 32 presets. The FM radio reception is superb and works well. Unfortunately you can not record from the FM tuner.
Why only an FM tuner and not an AM as well?

Mic recording

You can also use the X-Fi as a flash voice recorder. This feature works, though I do not know if you can take the recordings out of the X-Fi. I have not fully tested the Mic Recording. Just recorded a few seconds of my voice.

Built-In Speaker

The Zen X-Fi has a built in speaker, located on the bottom of the player. For such a tiny speaker, it actually sounds pretty good. Though it was a bit tinny sounding, you would have to max out the volume. But even at the maximum volume of 25, there is no sound distortion.

EQ Settings

The Zen X-Fi sports 9 EQ settings. Custom EQ, which you can use to customize the settings to your own taste. Acoustic, Classical, Disco, Jazz, New Age, Pop, Rock, and Vocal.

Photo Viewing

You can view JPEG photos on the Zen X-Fi. You can browse by folders and can also listen to music while viewing your pictures. It might be just me or my pictures, but I prefer the Zen Vision M’s screen quality over the X-Fi’s. It just doesn’t seem to be all that vibrant. It’s a bit on the dull, drab side.

I love the colors on the Zen Vision M…pack the Vision M’s screen onto the X-Fi, and it would be perfect.

Other notable features of the X-Fi

You can sync with your contacts in Outlook, there’s also a clock, calendar, and a to do list.

So there you have it, Creative packs a lot of features into a tiny package. The Creative Zen X-Fi is worth investigating if you’re in the market for a new DAP. You would not be disappointed with this wonderful DAP. I give it 9 out of 10.